The Discovery Of The Child

DRAWING AND REPRESENTATIVE ART 349>

accuracy, and opens the way to the inspirations which emanate-
from beautiful things, and the hand becomes more skilful and more
flexible. The child will attain the object towards which nature
urges him with more joy from having performed the preliminary
exercises necessary to be able to draw.

Dr. Revesz, speaking of our method, and replying to the
general criticisms made against it on the subject of " free drawing,"
says: "The Montessori School does not repress free drawing;
rather does it make the children find the greatest pleasure in free
drawing, along with the free development of their sense of colour
and form, as with the constant exercise of the hand and the eye."

The education of the hand is specially important, because the
hand is the expressive instrument of human intelligence; it is the
organ of the mind.

Dr. Katz, who has made a special study of the functions of
the hand in relation to psychology, says: "The Montessori
Method, being dedicated to the development of the functions of
the hand, makes very clear the surprising versatility of this organ.
My studies, which have extended over a period of twelve years,
have caused me to think how marvellous an instrument the hand
is in respect of its tactile sensibility and its movement. The hand
is the means which has made it possible for human intelligence-
to express itself and for civilization to move forward in its work-
Without the hand the intrinsic value and the character of the func-
tions of intelligent humanity would have been annihilated. The
hand is the organ of expression, and it is the organ of creation;
and in the world of the imagination also the hand has virtually
held sway. The hand, in early infancy, aids the development of
the intelligence and in the mature man, it is the instrument
controlling his destiny on the earth."